Faculty Focus – MW

How do we engage students?There are several strategies for engaging students in the classroom, and many of them have been written about the umbrella of “effective teaching strategies” and “student-centered” approaches. The reality is that any strategy that utilizes the following will engage students and require that their attention is devoted to the class and not to other pursuits: Ask questions and require students to write responses. Then ask again and have them read their answers to the class (not all, obviously, but a sampling). Have students respond to questions about readings or a previous class activity and bring those answers to foster peer discussions. Craft mini-lectures to include time for student comment, feedback, response, etc. Focus learning on student perspectives. Create rapport with students and build a classroom climate where students feel comfortable sharing their ideas.As basic as these seem, many, many faculty do not engage in activities that include active learning with students. The default teaching strategy remains largely lecture-based. In our efforts to “cover” the content we have created classrooms that are devoid of interaction.